Achieving our research goals
The Scientific Strategy Committee
The Scientific Strategy Committee (SSC) advises the Medical
Director and the Trustees and has a role:
- to ensure that basic, translational, clinical and
epidemiological research is undertaken which is relevant to the
range of musculoskeletal and rheumatic disorders considered to be
relevant to our mission
- to advise on approaches that may be appropriate to satisfy
unmet need in relevant areas of research
- to advise on the contribution of Arthritis Research
UK's Institutes and Centres to our research aims and its other
research strategies
- to advise on the contribution of proposed major programmes and
unusually large project grants to achieving our strategies
- to advise on the remit, constitution and development of any
funding sub-committees charged with implementing the SSC’s
strategy.
Strategically led research aims
In broad terms we support both strategically led research and
response mode or researcher led activities. The aim to direct all
our efforts towards overall research aims and the distinction is
between the processes of its initiation.
The two current key strategically led initiatives are:
1. Clinical trials
One major strategic target already identified is the need to
support research in identifying the role of both novel and existing
interventions across the board in our disease areas of
interest.
This will require providing support for large scale clinical
trials and related studies and working with both health care
providers, such as the NHS, and other bodies such as the
pharmaceutical industry, in developing a comprehensive programme of
work.
In this area the key principle is that we will collaborate with
industry where the latter will contribute to our research aims. The
goal is to harness the expertise, facilities and resources where
they support our goals.
Arthritis Research UK sees an absolute necessity in this
area of work for nationally agreed strategies and collaborative,
rather than competitive, working between the key stakeholders.
The costs of such research goals, the limited number of patients
and the necessity to work within the guidelines of national bodies
such as NIHR (National Institute for Health Research) are the major
‘drivers’ for a national strategy. Development of such strategies
has been devolved to the Clinical Study Groups (CSGs) we have
established in the seven major disease areas.
2. Centres of excellence
Centres of excellence are
multidisciplinary research groupings established in specific areas
of research endeavour. Centres will be established in key areas of
strategic interest, where there is a need to build up a critical
mass of expertise and other resources to address a particular area.
Further information on these centres can be found here.
Institutes
We currently support two Institutes that help us to deliver our
research aims, both of which are embedded within Universities:
These Institutes, in a typical budget year, consume around one
third of our direct research expenditure.
The Institutes are characterised by our historic long term
commitment, support to the salary costs of the senior investigators
and substantial infrastructure support with additional support to
enable the Institutes to undertake ambitious programmes of work,
either fully funded by us or with our resources being used to
stimulate and support areas of work funded in part by others.
Renewal of support to the Institutes is subject to international
review aiming for the highest scientific standards.
Researcher led
We have a commitment to supporting researcher led initiatives
for studies in areas of the charity’s interest.
Given the increased strategically led investment in clinical
trials and related research targets, much of the resource to
researcher led initiatives will be in basic science, including both
laboratory and health science, and translational research.
All applicants for response mode funding have to provide a
justification that is assessable by Arthritis Research
UK stakeholders.
1. Projects grants (Short term support)
The applications for short term support cover a large number of
different topics and approaches. Short term support refers to
project grants typically for up to 3 years of funding to support
the direct costs of conducting and meeting research targets of
relevance to Arthritis Research UK.
Allocation of resources to specific projects are based on the
judgment of the worth of the question, the scientific merit of the
proposal and the relative resources allocated to that broad area
across the totality of Arthritis Research UK funding.
Decisions are informed, in part, by both consumer (i.e. patient
and public) as well as clinical views of relevance and
importance.
2. Programme grants (Long term support)
Long term support refers to programme support, typically up to 5
years, to research groups working at the international cutting edge
in their field.
Such support enables the recruitment and retention of promising
young scientists and the development of a coherent programme of
research but with the flexibility both to change direction as the
results and external activities dictate and to include the taking
of calculated risks.
It is assumed that the successful applicants for this funding
represent the highest quality in scientific performance.
Given the strategic importance of this type of funding, requests
for such support will be considered in outline by the SSC to
determine their overall contribution to the strategic research aims
of Arthritis Research UK, taking into account the other activities
it funds.
The originality, suitability of the team, scientific merit and
value for money of the proposals selected by SSC will then be
subject to scrutiny by an expert panel.
3. Equipment and research facilities
Arthritis Research UK has traditionally supported
researcher led requests for specific items of expensive equipment
which have the potential to enable a number of major research
projects to be attempted.
The appropriate future arrangements to fund equipment grants are
under consideration.
Other research infrastructure support
Our policy is to support all the direct costs of the research it
funds.
We expect that indirect costs (e.g. accommodation, senior
academic posts and general support posts) would be supported by
Universities following national policies in regard to the role of
research charities.